Apparatus for conveying and utilizing liquid air or oxygen.



No.' 65l,029.

Patented lune 5, Y |900.

S. H. EMMENS'.

APPARATUS FUR CONVEYING AND UTILIZING LIQUID AIR 0B OXYGEN.

(Application fixed July 19, 1899.)

(No Model.)

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llNrrE STEPHEN H. EMMENS,

PEN'r -oF NEW YORK, N. Y.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N o. 651,029, dated June 5, 1900.

Application tiled .l'uly 19, 1899.

Serial No. 724,402. (No model.)

To Ir/ZZ 71171/0717, it may con/cern:- Be itknown that I, STEPHEN HENRY .EM- MENs, a subject ot the Queen of Great Brit- 4ain and Ireland, and a resident of the borough of Richmond, in the city and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Conveying and Utilizing Liquid Air or Oxygen, of which the following is a specification.

rlhe primary object of this invention is to provide safe and effective means for economically conveying liquid air or liquid oxygen to oil-wells and for conveniently utilizing the same therein as a high explosive, and thus to avoid the risks attending the manufacture, transport, and utilization of nitroglycerin. The improved package may obviously be employed to convey liquid air or oxygen for other uses.

The invention consists in a shipping and storing package of peculiar construction whereby liquid air or oxygen may be safely conveyed reasonable distances Without any serious loss by evaporation and in certain novel combinations of parts in a package ot that description, as hereinafter set forth and claimed.

A sheet of drawings accompanies this specification as part thereof.

Figure 1 of the drawings represents an axial vertical section through said shipping and storing package; and Fig. 2, an axial section, on a larger scale, of its inner receptacle removed and provided with a detonating-cap for use as a Well-torpedo.

Like letters and numbers refer to like partsin both gures.

The body of the specific inner receptacle or torpedo A consists ot'fa sheet-metal cylinder having a Wideopen upper end 1 and a conoidal lower end 2, the latter terminating in a short cylindrical neck 3. Into this neck is inserted a brass tube 4, Fig. 2, open. at both ends and filled with gunpowder tightly packed. The chamber 5 of the inner receptacle or torpedo is then loosely filled with greasy cotton-waste or other analogous combustible material introduced through the open end 1, and the remainder of the pack- Y age being ready the charge of liquid air or oxygen is poured into said chamber 5. The remainder of the package consists of an opentopped sheet-metal inner vessel LB, inclosing the inner receptacle A, except its upper end, and forming around the same an annular the liquefied gas; a non-conducting body C, hereinafter more particularly described, of suitable felt or its equivalent, and a tightlyfitted lid D, of the same, forming a chamber 7, within which said inner receptacle A and inner vessel B are inclosed While stored orin transit; an outer open-topped sheet-metal case E, lined by said non-conducting body C, and an annular base F, that may be of wood, attached externally to the bottom of said outer case E.

Passages S extend radially from the upper portion of the chamber 7 into a concentric annular cavity 9 within the body C, connected in like manner with the lower portion of said chamber 7 by radial passages 10. The inner ends of the passages 10 communicate with a radial depression 11 in the bottom ot' said chamber 7, which is in turn connected by radial passages 12 with a central hole 18, extending downward through the bottom of the case E. This central hole 13 communicates with the space 14 within the annular base F and through radial passages 15 in said base with the outer atmosphere.

The liquid air or oxygen in the inner vessel B as it evaporates iows out through said passages 8 into the annular cavity 9 and thence escapes through the passages 10, depression 11, passages 12, bottom hole 13, space 14, and passages 15 into the outer atmosphere, thus conveying off whatever heat may find its way from the outside atmosphere through the case E, non-conducting cap l), land body C, and consequently reducing the evaporation of the contents of thc inner vessel to a minimum. The enveloping current of escaping vapor that fills the annular cavity V9 is protected against condensation by the non-conducting walls ot' this cavity, its inner and outer walls both being of this description. The inner receptacle or torpedo A, standing within the inner vessel B, is thus kept at the temperature of the liquefied gas until itis required for use. The lid D is then removed,

Fig. 2, charged with a suitable fulminate, is applied to the protruding lower end of the the torpedo withdrawn, a detonating-cap 16,

chamber G, which is filled or partly filled with IOO tube 4, and the torpedo is dropped endwise Vinto the well Without any serious loss of efficiency by the evaporation of its charge. W'hen` the cap 16 strikes the rock or water or oil at the bottom of the well, the torpedo is exploded by the detonation of the fulminate and guupowder, causing the mixture of liquid air or oxygen and combustible to unite explosively.

The torpedo formed by the specific inner receptacle shown at A forms no part of the present invention nor said inner receptacle, except as an element in the general combination of parts hereinafter claimed.

More than one inner receptacle or torpedo may, it' required, be inclosed within a single package, a perforated foot flange or rim on the case E may take the place of the base F,

and other like modifications will suggest themconducting body forms the lining, and a base attached externally tothe bottom of said case; said non-cond ucting body,case and base being provided with cseapeliiassages, and said inner receptacle and inner vessel being charged with the liquefied gas.

2. In a package for conveying liquid airor oxygen, the combination with an opeutopped inner vessel, charged with the liquefied gas, of a non-conducting body and lid forming a chamber within which said inner vessel is in closed, and constructed with an annular cavity the inner and outer Walls of which are noncouducting in communication with both the upper and lower parts of said chamber, an outer case having an opening in its bottom in communication with said chamber, and a base provided with radial passages in communication with said bottom hole and with the outer atmosphere.

3. In a package foroonveying liquid airor oxygen, the combination with an inner receptacle charged with the liquefied gas of a nonconducting body and lid forming a chamber that incloses said inner receptacle, said body being further constructed with an annular cavity that surrounds said chamber and the inner and outer walls of which are-noncon ductors in communication with the upper part of said chamber and indirectly in eom-' municaiion at bottom with the outer atmosphere, and an outer case of which said non conducting body forms the lining.

4. In a package for conveying liquid air or oxygen, the combinat-ion with an inner receptacle charged with the liquefied gas of a noncond ueting body and lid forming a chamber inclosing said inner receptacle and constructed with an annular cavity surrounding said chamber and separated from said chamber by a heat-insulating wall, said cavity being in communication with said chamber at top and indirectly in communication with the outer atmosphere at bottom, whereby evapo ration within said chamber is retarded by an enveloping current of escaping vapor within said annular cavity, and the condensation ol the escaping vapor within said cavity is prevented, substantially as hereinbelore specified.

STEPHEN Il. EMWENS.

Witnesses:

NEWTON W. EMMENS, WILLIAM MoLLov. 

